How does crowd funding work? What does Paul Wheaton, the DUKE of permaculture have in the pipeline as far as his next project? We cover this on today’s livestream.

Paul’s Kickstarter: Link to Paul’s Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/paulwheaton/garden-master?ref=6cxu6f

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After a week to assess SRF, today is the Great Debrief of the event. The good, the bad, the ugly, the money.

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Live streams this week

  • Tuesday Interview Show (Audio podcast on Sunday)
  • Wednesday Live with Paul Wheaton
  • Friday Homestead Happenings and Q & A

Tales from the Prepper Pantry

  • Transition from storing to using has happened
  • First frost of 2022
  • Freeze dryer is back in action
  • Preparing October Food Forest meals: Pulled pork, smoking home cured bacon, breakfast sausage, ground turkey for tacos, butternut squash soup, venison (More to come, as much from the Holler Homestead as possible)
  • Bumper crop of chestnuts this year (How we store them)

Weekly Shopping Report for Powell, TN 10/03/2022

We made two trips this weekend. The first, on Saturday, was to three usual places, Dollar Tree, Home Depot, and Aldi.

Dollar Tree looked about the same, except less frozen and refrigerated foods. The Health aisle has not been restocked. There are still a lot of cotton pads (good to soak in wax for firestarters), bandaids, and some OTC meds, but the selection is dwindling. One section of food coolers remains Out of Order, but the other sections are now almost empty as well. The drink coolers still have a lot of product, and canned goods are still pretty full, even though it’s mostly tier-2 brands.

At Home Depot, a 2x4x8 remains at $3.98. For the first time, we both noticed less selection on the tool wall, although we did find another pair of pliers. A lot of the tools are made in China, so I’d expect stock to continue dwindling as central warehouses are drawn down.

I don’t remember any remarkable changes at Aldi, and we found what we wanted, escaping at just under $100 for the two of us plus the kitties.

I don’t recall seeing any face-diapers on Saturday.

Today, we also made three stops. The first was Dollar General Market. Sonia did not find a large one-piece spoon she wanted (the prior one had just broken at the welds), but she found a small cast-iron piece for the toaster oven, and we added some apples and a small bag of potatoes. Stock looked okay, although they’ve got Christmas stuff out already, which is indecent. In line we were behind a couple of muzzled sheeple, but I don’t remember seeing more.

Second was the recycle center; nothing special noted. Traffic seemed light.

The final stop was a different Dollar General, where Sonia found the spoon, and also a muffin pan for the toaster oven. The latter turned out to be slightly too big, so we used our tools and turned it into a 4- and a 2-muffin set. Looking through the food aisles, there were lots of holes, but we found a couple of boxes of angel hair pasta for $1 each; hopefully it is edible.

Untainted regular gasoline remains at $4.199, although I’ve seen the corrupted stuff as low as $2.999 now.

Frugality Tip

Eggdrop Soup for breakfast

Operation Independence

  • SRF Made a profit for the first time!
  • A word on the food forest budget
  • Penny wise and pound fooling on water lines

Show Sponsor: Paul Wheaton – Launching a kickstarter tomorrow! Stay tuned.

Main topic of the Show: The Debrief

SRF is behind us and now it is time for the great event debrief.

Why SRF Exists

  • Bridge the gap between prepper and homesteader so that we are all stronger together
  • Master new skills
  • Remove barriers and roadblocks that attendees have to choosing success
  • Become a functioning and expanding counter economy to increase personal resilience

My personal involvement

  • I get to invest my time in something that helps people 
  • Replaces website development BU

The good

  • 440 people
  • 30 speakers
  • 28 vendors
  • Easy access to good food
  • Showers, hand washing stations and the like (Better infrastructure)
  • Raised $1700 for Darkhorse Lodge Veterans Retreat
  • Music and fun
  • Connections were made
  • Better flow
  • It made a profit

The bad

  • Pre event communications needed to me steadier and faster
  • Ticket sales was hard this round
  • Event coordination team understaffed (Trade offs in my personal business)
  • Speaker churn
  • Content challenges (We missed the mark on what some attendees were there for: practical vs lifestyle)
  • More vendors
  • Better marketing needed

The Ugly

  • Some internal tensions emerged
  • We got so big I am no longer aware of exactly who I should be thanking and I want to fix that

The money

  • I got to pay some people!
  • There is profit, but this does not account for the last 3 events’ losses or John’s or my team’s time (about 4 months of man hours per event)

A year ago, this was a small event with a handful of people and we are 4X the size and achieving great things: new businesses, relationships, virtual attendance, creative participation, and moving people off the fear!

Thankful for all the help, the sponsors, the participants and the progress. 

Membership Plug

MeWe reminder

Make it a great week!

GUYS! Don’t forget about the cookbook, Cook With What You Have by Nicole Sauce and Mama Sauce. 

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Every Friday, we record our Homestead Happenings update, followed by a questions and answers session. Today’s podcast is the questions and answers session from yesterday’s podcast. We cover: Geothermal cooling, sheep and dogfood, kratky hydroponics, growing sweet potatoes in the Aquaponics system, repairing a foundation, and more.

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Main content of the show

Replay of the Tuesday Live on Youtube.

https://youtu.be/4OFWDJ19Gro

Make it a great week!

GUYS! Don’t forget about the cookbook, Cook With What You Have by Nicole Sauce and Mama Sauce. 

Community

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Today’s homestead update covers two weeks since we were at the Self Reliance Festival last weekend and not around to livestream on Friday. Fall is really taking hold here, we have stayed unusually dry so do not have much grass, will be processing sheep next week, and more.

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Forage

  • 80 + chestnuts from one tree
  • Watercress looks sad
  • Last round today for any sensitive herbs like mint 
  • New mullein plants are popping up
  • Timothy is starting to finally grow
  • Too dry for oysters, alas!

Livestock

  • No baby sheep yet
  • Need a livestock trailer to move 5 sheep to slaughter on Oct 11-12 (Barn splitting project)
  • Ducks are laying in the yard and going back in jail
  • Muscovies and Khakis have intermingled
  • 8 sheep, 16 acres, 3 months – and not enough rain to regrow enough to go back over it
  • Pigs will be leaving – hard decision because we got SO MUCH meat – at about $2.35 direct cost (Not including labor)
  • LGD update – Max doesn’t respect the fence – but now he does again
  • Feeding dogs dogfood without feeding sheep dogfood (Thanks Steve)

Grow

  • Tromboncino as long as T’s leg (and how we grew it)
  • Harvesting timothy seed heads to save on seed money
  • Have not set up indoor lettuce yet
  • Ripping out the whole garden
  • Cauliflower update

Holler Neighbors/Community

  • We left and no one died – thanks to the network housesitter, Steve and Tracy, KH, and the other Tracy who kennels dogs for us
  • Had a delightful dinner at the Eversoles – will start one here next week (This week got nuked by surgery)
  • SRF was a screaming success thanks to many hands pitching in

Infrastructure

  • Decommissioning the solar water heater and cleaning chimneys
  • AP heat
  • Burying the water line for the gravity fed water project at the coming Food Forest Workshop
  • Need to move the bees

Finances

Membership Plug

Make it a great week!

GUYS! Don’t forget about the cookbook, Cook With What You Have by Nicole Sauce and Mama Sauce. It makes a great Christmas Gift!

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Today we talk about the Self Reliance Festival, poverty mindset, creating success, Ukraine, natural disasters and more with Jack Spirko and John Willis.

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Show Resources

Special Operations Equipment

Living Free in Tennessee

The Survival Podcast

Main content of the show

Replay of the Tuesday Live on Youtube.

First Tuesday Coffee Chat with Nicole, John & Jack

Make it a great week!

GUYS! Don’t forget about the cookbook, Cook With What You Have by Nicole Sauce and Mama Sauce. 

Community

Advisory Board

Resources

 

Today we have an interview show with Robert Ralston – a man who has approached prepping with a family member with special needs. It changes the equation.

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Show Resources

https://www.prepper-presentations.com/


Main content of the show

My Wife and I are in our mid 50’s and have been prepping for about six years. We have a 20 year old non verbal autistic child.  I work for the family plumbing business in the warehouse where I build prepper items to sell and inspire others in the wood shop.

  • Are you worried about people coming to your house after a long term disruption of the power grid or the internet banking grid?

  • Do good and bad people have the resources to come to your house ?

  • What are the five stages of prepper denial ?

  • What positive outcome can prepping bring about?

  • What should parents of special needs children be doing to prepare for local and global events?

  • Should these parents get into gardening?

  • What is at risk to work on your possible immaturity when it comes to your mind, body, spirit and bank account?

  • How can unemotional critical thinking in preparing improve your mind, body, spirit and bank account?

 

Make it a great week

GUYS! Don’t forget about the cookbook, Cook With What You Have by Nicole Sauce and Mama Sauce. 

Community

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Today we take a bit of a dive into finding like-minded people should mean, if it is a good idea, and how to make community work.

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Livestream Schedule:

  • Joel Ryals Live Tuesday at 2pm on my YT
  • No Wednesday Live this week
  • SRF Final Q & A Session Thursday at 7pm. SRF YT

Hogget

Tales from the Prepper Pantry

  • FD Food is great for travel
  • Tomato wall is disconnected and we are letting tomatoes ripen on the vines
  • Auditing Pantry for On Site Food for SRF Staff

Weekly Shopping Report from Joe

We made this week’s trip on Sunday, with three stops. Traffic seemed a little heavy, but it must have been church traffic, because the store parking lots seemed relatively empty.

The first stop was Dollar Tree. Ginny on Homestead Corner said her Dollar Tree (somewhere in Maine) was running out of things, and holes were being masked by plastic items spread out on shelves, but I did not see that in ours. The Health aisle has still not been restocked, but everything else looks pretty full.

Next was Home Depot. A 2x4x8 remains at $3.98. The battery carrels at checkout are only 1/3 full, but I noticed some additional islands with batteries. They may be switching things around, as the carrels are mostly Duracell and Ray-o-Vac, but the islands are Ever-ready (Energizer). The store is otherwise well-stocked. While getting some 3-in-1 oil, I found a 26″ RainX wiper blade there for only $11, so snatched that up. If you need wiper blades, they don’t have a lot of them, but if your Home Depot has your size, that’s an excellent price.

Aldi was last. I don’t recall any notable price changes, but there seemed a lot less variety in the chips and snacks area. Produce looked good, the meat area had decent stock, and we found a couple of frozen turkey breasts which we had not seen there for a while. At $11 each, I’m glad we’ll get at least a few meals from each one.

At my last fill, untainted regular was still $4.199/gallon. 

Frugality Tip

The new freezer probes for $70

https://shop.yosmart.com/products/speakerhub-two-temperature-humidity-sensors

Operation Independence

SRF Might make a profit this time! 125% focused on the event. (Also tickets go up Wed after 12pm)

Today’s Sponsor: Paul Wheaton of Wheaton Labs and Permies.com

Paul Wheaton wants to show you how to build a shed quickly, out of materials right off your own land. The coolest part? Nobody will even know it’s there… Check out The Berm Shed Movie at https://permies.com/w/berm-shed?f=495

Main topic of the Show:  On Like-Mindedness

Back to the Land and Like-Minded People

What do we mean when we say like minded?

What should we mean when we say like minded?

Thoughts about critical thinking skills

Trust the Science and asking questions

Creating communities of like-minded people

Don’t sweat the small stuff

Assessing if something is a CRITICAL difference or a small difference

None of my business

Landing: Like mindedness is very important if we break things down to core values, but our human tendency is to equate strong opinions on a variety of things with core values. However, when we reach further, we often find that the BIG differences of opinion that we have are other people’s talking points, or things grounded in the HOW not the WHY or the WHAT. 

We can do better and focus on real goals that make a real difference when we learn to look beyond the spin and work together on core outcomes.

Membership Plug

MeWe reminder

Make it a great week!

Song:

GUYS! Don’t forget about the cookbook, Cook With What You Have by Nicole Sauce and Mama Sauce. 

Community

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Today is a Sunday so we have an interview show and today’s guest is someone I have wanted to chat with for a long time: Survival Punk! His is a story of setting personal priorities early on in life and sticking to them – something I did NOT do! 

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Show Resources

www.survivalpunk.com

YouTube/survivalpunk

Main content of the show

James takes a rational, creative approach to self-reliance, applying a punk DIY ethic to survivalism without any of the fear mongering or “tinfoil hattery” found in some other areas of the survivalist movement.

  • Why live in a tiny house
  • Who should live in one
  • How can you be a survivalist in one?
  • How can you live in a tiny house with a family
  • How can you afford one?
  • Problems with tiny houses

Make it a great week

GUYS! Don’t forget about the cookbook, Cook With What You Have by Nicole Sauce and Mama Sauce. 

Community

Advisory Board

Resources


Every Friday, we record our Homestead Happenings update, followed by a questions and answers session. Today’s podcast is the questions and answers session from yesterday’s podcast. We cover: disappearing sheep, the light at the end of the fencing tunnel, why you will lose livestock if you do not check in every day, and the transition to fall.

Download

Main content of the show

Replay of Friday’s Homestead Happenings from YT

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TO6dKzDqT_o

Make it a great week!

GUYS! Don’t forget about the cookbook, Cook With What You Have by Nicole Sauce and Mama Sauce. 

Community

Advisory Board

Resources


Today we talk about disappearing sheep, the light at the end of the fencing tunnel, why you will lose livestock if you do not check in every day, and the transition to fall.

Download

Forage

  • Jerusalem artichoke
  • Persimmons
  • Watercress
  • Mint

Livestock

  • Duck Story
  • Sheep Story
  • Shoring up rodent proofness of the coop
  • Rabbit is due if she is pregnant
  • Final “clearing evolution” with Sheep

Grow

  • Winding garden down and not doing a fall garden
  • Ramping up indoor lettuce right after SRF
  • Green beans are poppin with watering and late season peppers
  • Pulling out the tomato wall after srf

Holler Neighbors/Community

  • Showing Eversoles how to do animals
  • Proposing a weekly Holler Neighbor Dinner after SRF
  • SRF!

Infrastructure

  • Can finally see how to set up sheep fencing better
  • Winter shelter strategies initiated

Finances

  • Let’s just say, we don’t buy meat: Chicken Tacos from the pterodactyl

Membership Plug

Make it a great week!

GUYS! Don’t forget about the cookbook, Cook With What You Have by Nicole Sauce and Mama Sauce. It makes a great Christmas Gift!

Community

Advisory Board

Resources